Before the official start of production of the 4th movie, which has some legal problems at the moment, Fox gave the greenlight for a series based on the events right after Terminator 2.

The pilot is a setting to bring the series forward in time, to make it more relevant plotwise and also more interesting. A series taking place in the late nineties wouldn’t be on the air long. I found the pilot interesting, however the actors could have been chosen better. This will hopefully get better in the series, but the dry and unemotional acting of some of the actors is annoying at best.

There is always the paradox of why SkyNet didn’t send another T-1000 back to deal with the Connors. I know that the effects would be too costly for a television series, but it doesn’t make that much sense to keep sending back old models to terminate the Connors. Anyways, they explain this situation by telling the viewers that different times from the future try to influence the past by sending different terminators, a reminder of the Temporal Cold War concept from Star Trek: Enterprise.

Sarah goes to get her son because she has been made at the diner she works at. The cops arrest them. A terminator comes to kills them. She dreams of Judgment Day, the day that the AI SkyNet took control of the US nuclear defenses and decided to exterminate humanity. As the nuclear explosions detonate, the blast peels and burns the skin off the Terminator; he is made of metal.

She is about to get married. After her nightmare, she decides that it is time to leave. They leave together. She leaves the ring. The fiancé is informed that Sarah killed a family of 4. The FBI agent starts talking about and robots. It’s the psychopathic delusions that are attributed to Connor.

The FBI agent inputs her new alias, Sarah Reese into computer. At the same time, a Terminator gets this update and is sped along.

Meanwhile, Sarah moves to a new town. John meets a new friend at school named Cameron, but she asks a lot of questions which make him uncomfortable. John comes home and says that he doesn’t like the new town. The dynamics have changed. In Terminator 2, Sarah was helped a lot by John, his leadership skills clearly coming out of his pre-adolescent shell. Now, John is older yet more immature.

He tells Cameron about his father. There is a new teacher in class. He is a Terminator. He pulls out a gun from inside his thigh and as soon as he identifies John, he starts shooting. Cameron is shot several times, but John makes his escape by diving out a window. John is cornered in the parking lot and is about to be terminated, but Cameron drives a truck into the terminator and disables him.

The FBI agent arrives in New Mexico to see the damage. He is hot on the trail of the Connors.

Sarah comes to the scene to check on John, but she is cornered by the terminator. The terminator takes Sarah to the house. He wants to use her as a decoy. But John doesn’t etner the house, Cameron does. The terminators both look like T-100 models. Cameron distracts the terminator and electrocutes his brain. Sarah and John leave, but Cameron makes it onto the truck. She tells them that they have 120 seconds before the other model reboots.

Cameron is strange. Summer Glau, fresh off the 4400, plays her. She has trouble portraying her as believably robotic. The other terminator is repairing itself. Cameron tells Sarah that Judgment Day is in 2011. Cameron comes from 2027.

Lena Headey plays Sarah Connor is a too robotic fashion; robotic as in bad. She is a bit too young to have an 18 year old child. Being serious isn’t about talking slowly and distinctively. The plea that John makes to Sarah is a bit boring as well.

-I can’t run anymore, I’m not a messiah
-You… Don’t… Know… That…
-Allright, I’ll destroy Skynet again.
A conversation between John and Sarah.

Miles Dyson is dead because Sarah. She is back to talk to Miles’ widow. The widow doesn’t want anything to do with Sarah. But when she sees Cameron’s eyes, she understands. Sarah questions the widow about the research.

The other terminator is already hot on their tracks. He comes to the Dyson residence. But he gets rear-ended by another truck. Cameron had rigged the other truck to blow and they hurt the terminator for now.

Cameron intends to make a withdrawal at a bank. She opened an account in 1963 and enters the safe. She asks to be locked inside the vault with Sarah and John at gunpoint. She opens her box and then opens another series of boxes. They sent someone back in time to build something with existing technologies of the time. She says it’s hope.

The other terminator isn’t far behind. He comes for them. Cameron tells them that she assembled a gun of sorts. There is also a way out, a way through time. It’s the only way. An engineer was sent back to integrate the circuits into the vault. Sara fires her “gun” at the other terminator and destroys it.

They arrive in the future. They come from 1999 into a new world. They arrive naked as always. Their arrival is captured by a teen with his camera phone. They see that its 2007. Cameron gets them a car.